Thursday, January 01, 2009

Weather Geek

As an avid weather geek I was not surprised to read that the state climatologist reported 2008 was the fourth wettest year on record in Iowa.

I read the almanac section of the daily paper religiously. That section gives highs and lows for the previous day, notes record highs and lows for the current date, and gives total precipitation for the current month and current year compared to averages totals. There is also a listing of the inflow of the Iowa River to Coralville Resevoir, outflow from the dam spillway and river gauges at the stages of Iowa City, Lone Tree, Marengo, and Wapello. I love all that stuff.

For the Iowa City region we were just short of 20 inches over normal precipitation in 2008. Average mean is 37.90" we totaled 56.49".

With the recent warm weather melting all the snow river flow has been way up too. Inflow is 4,050 cubic feet per second, outflow is 4,375 cfs. Normally this time of year that runs somewhere around 1200 cfs. During the flood last summer flow in Iowa City reached 42,000 cfs. At that point we had a record flood gage height in Iowa City of 31.5 feet (flood stage is 22 ft)

Here's to a normal 2009

3 comments:

Jan Marie said...

All weather geeks need a weather station. I bought my parents one for Christmas one year and lo and behold a tornado hit a house right across the street from them. They recorded a wind speed of 96 mph. When the funnel cloud passed over their roof, it sucked all the water out of all 4 toilets through the waste stack. Unusual, but interesting none the least.

Also Weather Underground..www.wunderground.com has a section for local weather geeks to link their weather stations to their site. Getting a weather station installed is on my wish list of things to do.

I enjoy your blog and keep up the good work. Have a great 2009.

Jan

Jen said...

Jan amazes me.....

Happy 2009 !

Mike said...

Thanks to you both, I always enjoy it when anyone comments.

I don't have a weather station, but I take great pride in knowing the location of the Iowa City river gage station. The A & C mission style brick building with the red tile roof has been the source of daily readings since June 3, 1903.